House Bill 974 by Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, now moves to the Senate, where it will join House Bill 976, which would expand charter schools and establish a statewide private school tuition voucher program paid for out of the financing formula established for public schools. The House approved that measure late Thursday night in a 61-42 vote. In each case, as many as a dozen members from each party switched sides in what was otherwise a partyline vote.

The two bills are anchors of an ambitious agenda that Jindal pitches as a way to improve student performance and, in turn, economic opportunities and overall quality of life in Louisiana.

The tenure changes are sweeping and, along with the charter-voucher expansion, have drawn the ire of teachers associations and rank-and-file educators who accuse the Republican chief executive of a frontal assault on public education, classroom teachers in particular. But Jindal's proposals also have stirred passions among the burgeoning school-choice movement and garnered testimony from parents of students in schools that are deemed academically unacceptable under the state's accountability system.

Carter called the bill a necessary move to achieve Jindal's stated goal of "a quality teacher in every classroom." Carter praised teachers generally, but said, "Clearly, there are children who aren't learning."

Rep. Stephen Ortego, D-Carencro, said he has telephone calls he said came from relatives of teachers who would not give their names. "They were afraid we would pass this bill and then fire teachers for speaking out" against it, he said, lamenting the bill's approach as misguided. "I thought about why we enacted tenure in the first place. It was for that reason: So a teacher can teach without having fear in their heart."

Little intensity was present as lawmakers wrapped up a four-hour debate at 12:41 a.m. That time block followed a 12-hour debate on the voucher-charter measure. When lawmakers cast their final votes, six citizens sat in the upper House gallery. That group was outnumbered considerably by lobbyists, Jindal staffers, reporters and Department of Education authorities surrounding House members on the floor.

File photoRep. Steve Carter

The general premise of the bill is that tenure should much harder to achieve and that the job protection and salary structure should be tied directly to the developing teacher evaluation system -- approved during Jindal's first term but not fully implemented -- that turns on student test scores and other metrics. The bill also generally empowers superintendents in personnel decisions and changes due process considerations to allow teacher dismissals before hearings. Among the provisions:

• Employment decisions -- hiring, evaluations that determine tenure status, layoff plans -- would shift from school boards to superintendents and principals. The evaluations include reviews by principals and performance measures by a teacher's students. Teachers are rated highly effective, effective or ineffective.

• In any public system scoring C or below in statewide accountability assessment, the superintendent's contract would have to be rewritten to include targets for improvement in student test scores, graduation rates and teacher evaluations. The local board would be required to terminate a superintendent who failed to meet those contracted goals.

• Seniority would end as a consideration in any instances of layoffs, with the new rules tying reduction-of-force decision to the teacher evaluation system.

• Teachers hired after July 1, 2012 would have to be rated "highly effective" under evaluation system for five out of six years in order to acquire tenure. The terms were amended from Jindal's initial proposal: five straight years of "highly effective" status. (Currently tenured teachers won the protection after three years of being rehired by their school systems.)

• Any teacher, including those who already have tenure, would lose the protected status upon being rated "ineffective," giving superintendents the power to fire them immediately. Teachers would have right to appeal. Teachers could reacquire tenure under the same five-year "highly effective" standard applied to new hires.

• Superintendents would be able to dismiss teachers with tenure without a dismissal hearing, which under current law is held before the local school board, by providing written charges that could include incompetence, poor performance or willful neglect of duty. Bill would set first appeal hearing before three-person panel: superintendent, fired teacher's principal, another teacher of the fired employee's choice. State court appeal could follow.

• Any person hired as a school lunch supervisor after July 1, 2012 could not acquire tenure.

• Superintendents and local board would have to establish new salary schedules, replacing the current structure driven by seniority and degree certification with one that considers the evaluation system ratings. The House amended the measure to allow systems still to consider advanced degrees as warranting higher pay. The bill would, with a handful of specific exceptions, block salary reductions from one year to the next. The bill does not appropriate any additional money for the merit-pay structure.

In a Republican-dominated, Jindal-friendly chamber, opposition Democrats were unable to win significant changes to the due process section of the bill that governs how teachers can be dismissed. Their theme: A system whose only real appeal is in the state court system is onerous, expensive and unfairly stacked against the teacher. The closest Democrats' came to a significant change was an amendment to allow a fired teacher who wins his or her court appeal to recover attorneys fees and court costs. Rep. Herbert Dixon, D-Alexandria, failed in a 48-53 vote.

As they have since marathon committee hearings last week, Democrats lambasted the process that has led to quick House passage of such significant measures. The session has finished its second week and can run through June 4. The effective date on the bills is the same regardless of when they reach Jindal's desk, but the governor has unapologetically demanded swift action.

Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, said, "We had amendments today where the authors didn't even know what was in them. ... When we finish here, the press is going to read these bills and tell us what we did."

Carter said the schedule -- unprecedented in recent years, according to House employees -- is justified given the subject matter.